10 Melbourne shops gone but not forgotten
FROM Brashs to Tuckerbag and Ken Bruce going completely mad, here are 10 Melbourne stores that are gone but not forgotten.
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THERE is no shortage of shops in Melbourne, and everyone has their favourites.
But some of our best loved have sadly disappeared or changed for good over the years.
From Brashs to Tuckerbag and Ken Bruce going completely mad, here are 10 iconic Melbourne stores that are sure to inspire nostalgia.
Daimaru
JAPANESE retail giant Daimaru was the flagship attraction in the new Melbourne Central, opening its doors in 1991.
But 10 years of losses were the death knell as its shareholders closed the doors in 2002.
More than two million people poured through its doors trying to get a bargain during its closing down sale, so there will be plenty of Melbourne shoppers who will remember the crush every time they see Melbourne Central and its iconic glass cone and ‘Batman building’.
After Daimaru’s closure, a massive $250 million renovation opened up several other stores across the six floors it once occupied.
The farewell ad below, using the crying mannequin, was just plain weird.
Brashs
If you loved music, you loved Brashs. It was as simple as that.
This place had everything you needed when it came to audio. A massive range of CDs, vinyl records and cassettes was supported by cutting edge hi-fi and later expanded to audio visual and white goods.
Best remembered for Sale of the Century host Tony Barber starring in the television commercials and, of course the deep guttural “BRASHS” or “Where, the answer is Brashs” at the end of the ad.
The first Brashs store opened in 1862 in Elizabeth St, Melbourne, selling pianos and musical instruments, but, in 1998, the company and its 2000 staff and 105 outlets across the country fell into receivership and never recovered.
And hey, the mock Brashs Facebook page is well worth the look if you want to step back in time.
Fosseys
Once a competitor to the big department stores like Target, Big W and the like, if you were around in the 1980s and ’90s, you probably “found it at Fosseys”.
Established in Sydney in 1926 by Alfred Fossey, the brand had 148 stores across the country at its peak.
The name Fosseys died in 1998 when Coles Myer merged the stores with Target and rebranded them Target Country.
It’s hard to forget the “Fosseys family fashion frenzy” with fashion at “zany prices” ... “Ends Saturday”.
World 4 Kids
Ah, the early 1990s. What a time it was to be a kid — little or big.
US giant Toys R Us was on the way to Australian shores, sparking a toy war with Coles Myer and its now-dead World 4 Kids.
These stores were massive — a paradise for kids. It’s hard to forget running around the place, raising havoc and getting chased about by your parents as you played the video games and tried every toy under the sun.
W4K was smashed by Toys R Us and, by 2002, was bleeding some $30-odd million a year, forcing Coles to abandon the operation.
The stores might be gone now, but no kid will have forgotten the dinosaur from the 1993 launch ad (which came out the same year as the first Jurassic Park movie), or the catchcry “Woooooorld 4 kids!”
Tuckerbag
“Heeello Tucker, Hello Tuckerbag savings.”
No supermarket mascot has captured the imagination of Melburnians quite like Tucker, the paper bag with a face that looked like it would have been more at home on Mr Squiggle or some other popular children’s television show.
And he definitely hasn’t been forgotten, with someone creating a Facebook page in honour of the popular mascot.
Did you know Tucker was created by Axel Axelrad, the same fellow behind Hey Hey, It’s Saturday’s Ossie Ostrich?
Tuckerbag was gone by 1999, eaten up by Foodworks, but Tucker and its memorable advertising campaigns will never be forgotten.
McEwans
Before the hardware monster that is Bunnings swept through the country with its enormous warehouses, there was McEwans.
You can pretty much guarantee that McEwans was your old man’s (or your, depending on your vintage) favourite shop and it was the place to be for all your hardware needs.
“You can do it with McEwans because we’ve got a million things” was the slogan.
McEwans dates back to the gold rush and survived for 140 years before it was rebadged as Bunnings in 1993.
Stan Cash
Who could forget those camp “Stan Cash, the tin shed cowboy” ads, complete with cowboys and Indians.
Our friendly tin shed cowboy had 11 stores across Melbourne in suburbs such as Footscray, Essendon and Brighton that sold electrical appliances and other household goods.
But it was the iconic Stan Cash head with his cowboy hat and catchy ads that captured the imagination.
At one point, you could even buy Stan Cash T-shirts and, although all of the stores closed up in the 1990s, there is a new one in Brooklyn that opened in 2012.
And, judging from the video below, he’s still going strong!
Sizzler
Look, they still have them in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, but in Victoria, the scrumptious all-you-can eat buffet restaurant has bitten the dust.
Sizzler was the stuff of childhood dreams.
Spaghetti, meat, fish, salads, chips, pizza — everything, right in front of you, ready to go.
And if you never stuck your head under the soft-serve machine and poured it straight into your mouth, you haven’t lived.
Ken Bruce
“Ken Bruce has gone mad, Ken Bruce has gone mad, KEN BRUCE HAS GONE COMPLETELY MAAAAAD!”
Who could ever forget getting screamed at by your television as Ken Bruce rocked maniacally in his chair, straight jacket and parrot on shoulder?
And that bizarre bondage kit channelling Madonna is the stuff of nightmares.
Once in Chapel St, Prahran and Lonsdale St, Dandenong, Ken Bruce no longer exists as it once was.
Campbells Cash and Carry
We’re taking a bit of licence here, because Campbells Cash and Carry still exists as a wholesaler called Campbells Wholesale in Preston, but any mention of the company is sure to bring back memories of the famous — or infamous — Delilah.
From Dean Martin to Frank Sinatra, the soulful Delilah had sung with some greats — and even reckons she once got a kiss from Elvis.
But to Melburnians, she will always be the woman from the Campbells Cash and Carry ad. “What, what, what, Delilah”.
*Have we missed any? Tell us your favourites in the comment box below